Sprint's Virgin Mobile prepaid brand has made some changes to its Unlimited (formerly Beyond Talk) plan lineup. The changes are a mixed bag, there's more high speed data at the same price on three plans, but a popular plan has been discontinued and cheapest plan's price has been increased. Here are the changes:

The $35/month unlimited talk, messaging and data plan now includes 1 GB of high speed data (was 250 MB)

The $20/month 300 minutes, unlimited texting, no data plan has been replaced by a $25/month 500 minutes, unlimited texting, no data plan.

Current users on the $20 and $35 300 2.5 GB plans are grandfathered and can keep those plans but the plans are no longer available for plan changes or activations.

While more data is nice, I'm underwhelmed by these changes. The Virgin Mobile $35 and $45 plans still offer less data than identically priced plans from Boost Mobile, Sprint's other prepaid brand. The Boost $45 plan includes 5 GB and the $55 plan $10 GB. The discontinued $20 unlimited texting plan and the $35 2.5 GB plan were really Virgin's most competitive offerings. They were some of the only plans from any operator that gave users lots of texts and/or data without forcing them to pay for unlimited minutes. Now that those plans are gone I don't seen any reason for new customers to choose Virgin over Boost.

Typo here I think, should be $25: Current users on the _$20_ and $35 300 2.5 GB plans...

I ditched my grandfathered $25 unlimited plan a couple years ago. I wasn't using enough data to justify even $25 a month for it. I got a solid 1.5Mb connection at home (where I rarely needed it) and abysmal, even for 3G, speeds almost everywhere else.

$20 refers to the $20 "WiFi Lover's Delight" unlimited texts, 300 minutes, no data plan that was discontinued yesterday and is now grandfathered. It as nothing to do with the old $25 300 minute 2.5 GB, unlimited texts plan that was discontinued years ago.

I don't know what Virgin's plan is, honestly. They only have a small handful of phone offerings, several of which appear to be in closeout. They aren't stocking iphones or galaxy s phones, and they only have two phones released in the past 12 months (lumia 635, onetouch elevate).

Meanwhile, Boost has 15+ phones released in the past 12 months, and is stocking galaxy s 6 and iphone 6. It's pretty clear if you aren't hanging onto a grandfathered plan, there's very little to be had at Virgin. I guess those brand licensing fees are unattractive and they're slowly killing it off?

i have been a virgin mobile user for 5 years straight.....i was one of their first customers in 2010 on the beyond talk messaging plan back when it was 25 $ a month....but now im just saving up money to jump ship to cricket or boost.....their phone selection keeps getting smaller and less stellar and their network coverage isnt great...never has been...at this point im done with VM...its been a good ride while it lasted

I was ready to break down and sign up with a Galaxy S3 on the $35 plan when the phone disappeared from their site. What's left that I like I can't afford. I like the 5 G plans but $45 is too much on my budget. Now I am back at square one.

I'd go with Cricket before I went with Boost of I were you. Cricket uses AT&T towers. AT&T has great coverage about as good as Verizon. AT&T is always building to make their 4G network better. GSM phones give you better selection. You can get a LG G2 at a decent cost of you look on Amazon. At least an Unlocked phone you can switch to AT&T if you don't like Cricket. Boost your stuck with Sprint (unless you can do a Verizon SIM swap after activating the SIM in an actual Verizon phone first). I've messed with Boost and most areas you get 3G at best.